Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Rain, Wind, Birds

I pissed away the morning with coffee and MSNBC. And it was raining. It rained to beat hell last night, the birdbaths were full and everything was soaked.

After lunch the sun broke through. I fired up my picture grabbing optics, checked batteries, sim cards and camera settings. Then outside I fetched a dry cushion, sat down with a cup of coffee and waited for the birds. And waited. Waited. It was a little slow and drippy; then an exciting weather front rolled in pushing high winds and another inch of horizontal rain and hail.

I hunkered down in the Growlery listening to music and radio threats of tornadoes, pretending the shed wasn't rocking and wondering how a tiny Warbler survives all this. Where do they find shelter in a strange migration stop? How do they avoid all the Sharp-shinned Hawks and mirrored skyscrapers? Actually, statically half of them do not. It's a tough life on the wing for a tiny bit of colored feathers on a 2000+ mile journey. That pull of home is very strong.

As it usually does, the weather broke and the sun came out. As did I. I was hoping for some pictures of Blackburnian Warblers, better pictures of the Black-throated Greens, and passable pictures of Redstarts. Some non-birding friends, when we say we are waiting for "The Warblers", politely roll their eyes, thinking we are talking about a single bird species and wondering why the hell we are so excited. We are not not; we are waiting for a miracle, a whole pallet of tiny bird species.

I did get some wet Blackburnians, another set of a water-soaked Black-throated Green. No Redstart pictures, but nice pictures of Chestnut-sided and Nashvilles.